Monday, July 01, 2013

Facing a Fiery Furnace

In my sermon yesterday at Faith Bible Church, I began by reviewing some of the alarming dispatches from the culture wars, especially last week's Supreme Court decision against marriage, morality and the Constitution. It was a grim beginning.

But then I moved into an exposition of Chapter 3 of Daniel, the passage that describes the confident faith of Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah (aka Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego) when they were pressed to the extreme by a pagan culture.

It was a good and timely lesson. And I encourage you to read through the account and ponder its significance in your own life.

For those of you who are interested, that sermon will be up on the Vital Signs Ministries website soon. But you can enjoy right now the two songs that served as bookends to the sermon. The first is from the Larry Clinton Orchestra (a group that frequently shows up at our "When Swing Was King" presentations) and the second comes from Johnny Cash and the Carter family.